“We Had to Do This Because We Believe Fraud Happeneed” — UPDATE and LOCAL REACTION: MI State Police Block Republican Electors From Getting Inside Capitol [VIDEO]

As previously reported Michigan Republican Electors headed to Lansing, MI today, to cast their votes for Donald J. Trump.

The Republican Electors convened this morning where they successfully cast their votes for Donald J. Trump. When they got to the Capitol building to deliver their votes to the MI Senate floor, they were blocked by MI State Police.

According to Republican Elector, and Women For Trump Board member, Meshawn Maddock, “We are not removing any electors. We are instead, trying to send Trump Republican electors alongside the Democrat Electors.” She added, “This needed to be done. We’re not trying to circumvent anything.”

Marian Sheridan told us, “We have to do this because we believe fraud happened. But if we can’t prove fraud, then the vote stays for Biden, “ adding, “There’s no harm in sending two sets of Electors, in the event that voter fraud is proven, we just want to be prepared.”

Meshawn Maddock, explained, “It would be unwise not to do this, because given the gravity of what we’ve seen so far as it relates to voter fraud.”

Independent journalist Brendan Gutenschwager captured footage of the front of the Capitol where protesters were gathering. Along with the video, he tweeted:

Outside the Michigan State Capitol, currently closed to the public after officials say there were “credible threats of violence” as the Electoral College meets today to vote on the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

According to Gutenschwager, the Electors were already checked in, but were prohibited from entering the Capitol by MI State Police officers.

He tweeted: “The Electors are already here, they’ve been checked in.” Michigan State Police are blocking access to the Capitol, preventing the GOP Electors from getting inside

In another video, the lawyer for the GOP Electors and the MI State Police officer can be seen discussing the blockage of Electors. The lawyer for the GOP Elector explains that the GOP Electors are there, “trying to perform their constitutional duty.” The MI State Police officer explained that if they have a problem, they should contact Michigan’s Democrat Governor Gretchen Whitmer or the Republican Speaker of the House Lee Chatfield or Republican Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/12/__trashed-44/

Why Open System Economics Must Prevent a Closed System Great Reset

Platforms for Cooperation: Arctic Development and Space Exploration

As the war for the new system continues and the question of the US republic’s strategic survival remains unanswered, it is important not to lose sight of the long game. Larger issues bearing upon the ongoing survival of the human species must still be held firmly in mind as shaping the context in which the tactical policy fights must unfold over the coming weeks and months.

With this idea in mind, the founder of the Canadian Patriot Review and Rising Tide Foundation was invited to speak at the 6th International Scientific Congress “Globalistics-2020: Global issues and future of humankind” at Lomonosov Moscow State University on the panel topic: “Falsification and Politicization”.

All panelists treated different aspects of history research and cutting through the systemic falsification of history over recent years and also the nature of the future which studies of the past empower us to understand and influence… The Canadian Patriot’s Matthew Ehret delivered two short presentations on this panel dealing with 1) The history of US-Russia relations and the rise/fall of Russia Gate followed up by a later presentation on 2) Future pathways for cooperation in the new paradigm with a focus on the Polar Silk Road/Arctic Development and space cooperation. The presentation can be viewed here.

The list of panelists and full panel event follow below…

Edward Lozansky, (American University in Moscow);

Herbert R. Reginbogin, (Fellow at The Catholic University of America);

Peter Kuznick, (American University, Director of the Nuclear Studies Institute)

Oleg A. Alekseenko, (Lomonosov Moscow State University)

Katerina A. Borisova, (Lomonosov Moscow State University);

Michael C. Kimmage, (Ordinary Professor and Department Chair of History at The Catholic University of America)

Matt Ehret – Rising Tide Foundation, Senior Fellow American University in Moscow

Alexei Fenenko – Moscow State University, Moscow

James Jatras – former State Department diplomat, Washington, DC

Herbert Reginbogin – Catholic University of America, Washington, DC

Yuri Rogoulev – Moscow State University, Moscow

https://fort-russ.com/2020/12/why-open-system-economics-must-prevent-a-closed-system-great-reset/

Maltese Customs Seize Cocaine En-Route to Libya

Authorities in Malta seized on Sunday more than 600 kilograms of cocaine concealed among cooking oil containers in a shipment bound for nearby Libya, the largest such bust in Maltese history.

Originating in Ecuador and transiting through Columbia, the drugs reportedly boasted a street value of more than €69 million (US$84 million).

Dwana, the Maltese Customs Department, added in a separate statement that over the past three years, it had also detained almost US$1 billion worth of prohibited goods destined for the sanctioned North African country.

Riven by civil war, Libya is currently subject to economic restrictions imposed by both the United Nations and the European Union, consisting of an arms embargo and asset freezes against authorities and state entities, in addition to a travel ban among designated individuals.

Goods previously detained under the international sanctions regime have included €926 million ($1.1 billion) worth of paper money, as well as three containers carrying fireworks with an estimated value of more than €1 million ($1.2 million).

News of the recent bust, as well as the extent of goods being trafficked into Libya through the Meditarrenean island-state, follows just weeks after Maltese police announced a raft of arrests in connection with a highly sophisticated dirty money scheme involving Libyan armed forces and the Italian mafia.

Authorities reportedly detained more than 15 people - at least five of whom were charged, in addition to 15 companies, with money-laundering and other offences - in relation to a multi-billion euro international fuel smuggling conspiracy.

https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/13532-maltese-customs-seize-cocaine-en-route-to-libya

Uighur repression ‘turbocharged by technology,’ confidential documents show

Researchers uncover new details on how apps and tech companies like Zapya, Huawei and Megvii contribute to China’s surveillance and mass internment program in Xinjiang.

A new list of Uighur detainees believed to be leaked from Xinijang suggests that China continues to use sophisticated data collection technology to identify and arbitrarily detain members of the Muslim minority, according to a recent report by Human Rights Watch.

The group obtained a list of 2,000 detainees in Xinjiangs’s Aksu prefecture who were flagged by the Integrated Joint Operations Platform, a policing program that aggregates data about people in the region from a variety of sources, and flags those it deems to be a potential threat.

“The Aksu List provides further insights into how China’s brutal repression of Xinjiang’s Turkic Muslims is being turbocharged by technology,” HRW researcher Maya Wang said in a statement. “The Chinese government owes answers to the families of those on the list: why were they detained, and where are they now?”

The researchers found that the program flagged people as suspicious for practicing Islam, using peer-to-peer file sharing applications such as Zapya, travelling or being young, that is, “born after the 1980s.”

Such findings seem to match the Chinese surveillance and mass internment program revealed in classified government documents obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists last year.

The China Cables investigation detailed China’s plan to control, detain and indoctrinate Uighurs, using prison-like structures and highly sophisticated mass-surveillance technology.

One bulletin showed how officials closely monitored Zapya, one of the apps identified in the HRW report, on some Uighurs’ phones and flagged its users for further investigation.

https://www.icij.org/investigations/china-cables/uighur-repression-turbocharged-by-technology-confidential-documents-show/

Interpol-led Operation Busts Human Smuggling Networks

An Interpol-led operation conducted throughout 32 countries and across four continentsresulted in arrests of more than 200 people belonging to criminal networks involved in the smuggling of more than 3,500 people, most of whom were migrants.

The migrants rescued and identified during the operation were from roughly 50 countries and were attempting to enter the U.S. and Canada, “mainly through smuggling routes in Latin America and the Caribbean,” the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in a statement Monday.

“More than 30 of the arrests were tied to the prevalence of sexual exploitation of female migrants and human trafficking victims,” Interpol said.

They added that during the operation, which was coordinated from Brazilian Federal Police headquarters in Brasilia between November 27 and December 3 – codenamed Turquesa II – “more than 50,000 checks against Interpol databases were made at air, land and sea borders as well as national hotspots.”

Throughout this crackdown, police in the Americas, Africa, Europe and Asia also discovered other wanted criminals.

Authorities in Panama arrested the “subject of a Red Notice wanted internationally in connection with a murder in Mexico,” while in Mexico, “authorities arrested the alleged leader of a Mexican-based organized crime group smuggling migrants from the coast of Cuba using speed boats.”

“Connecting police across continents is crucial to stem the trail of misery behind migrant smuggling,” Interpol Secretary General, Jürgen Stock, said.

He also warned that operation Turquesa II showed “how organized crime groups continue to take advantage of vulnerable people seeking a better life, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, and demand large sums of money with little or no concern for their welfare.”

UNODC, whose crime prevention experts have been supporting Interpol, commended the operation and said it “will continue to play a key role in the postoperative phase of Turquesa II.”

“Multi-agency cooperation is essential to stop migrant smugglers and human traffickers, and rescue victims,” UNODC Executive Director, Ghada Waly, said.

The UN agency added that it has facilitated coordination between law enforcement agencies and specialized prosecutors in preparation for the next phase of the operation, which it said would be crucial.

“We will use our expertise to ensure that the cases of migrant smuggling and human trafficking identified during this operation will lead to successful prosecutions and convictions,” UNODC Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Officer, Carlos Perez, said.

https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/13533-interpol-led-operation-busts-human-smuggling-networks

Supreme Court Turns Down Red State Bid to Salvage Proof of Citizenship Voter Law

The Supreme Court on Monday turned down a request to salvage a Kansas law that required residents to provide proof of citizenship when registering to vote, despite pleas from Kansas lawyers and almost 20 red states.

Kansas's red-state allies used the case to mount a broader attack on a legal test that in their view gives judges too much power in election-security disputes. Former Kansas secretary of state Kris Kobach (R.) championed the law and personally defended it in court against an ACLU lawsuit.

The Secure and Fair Elections (SAFE) Act required Kansans to produce documentary proof of citizenship when registering to vote. U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson struck the SAFE Act down in 2018. Robinson said it conflicted with a federal law that requires state officials to use "the minimum amount of information necessary" to determine voter eligibility. She also found the SAFE Act unconstitutional, saying the burden it placed on voters outweighed the state's interest in protecting elections.

A coalition of 18 red states seized on Robinson's second finding to push for a bigger change in election law. Relying on two Supreme Court cases from the 1980s and 1990s, federal courts usually compare benefits against burdens when reviewing voting rules. In a legal brief to the justices, the red states argued that approach isn't objective and leads to inconsistent results. They urged the Court to hear the Kansas case and use it to jettison the balancing test for election laws.

"[B]alancing the pros and cons of a given law is not a judicial analysis. And … it does not lead to uniformity in decisions or predictability in outcomes," the red states' brief reads. "The Court should take this opportunity to clarify that election laws are not subject to a freestanding balancing analysis."

About 30,000 voter applications were denied under the SAFE Act, compared with 129 noncitizens who registered or attempted to register. Dale Ho, the director of the ACLU's voting-rights project, said the "Supreme Court's decision not to review the case will finally close this chapter on Kris Kobach's sorry legacy of voter suppression."

Robinson sanctioned Kobach for repeated misconduct at trial and failure to follow court orders. He was considered for several posts in the Trump administration, including homeland-security secretary and immigration-policy czar.

The Kansas attorney general's office did not return a request for comment by press time. The case is No. 20-109 Schwab v. Fish.

https://freebeacon.com/courts/supreme-court-turns-down-red-state-bid-to-salvage-proof-of-citizenship-voter-law/

Switzerland Imposes Sanctions on Belarus President Lukashenko

Switzerland’s federal government has extended sanctions on Friday against Belarus by freezing assets and imposing a travel ban against its leader, Alexander Lukashenko, over his government’s oppressive crackdown following contested presidential elections.

The move is in line with what the European Union implemented on November 9, the Swiss Federal Council said in a press release, adding that in addition to sanctions against President Lukashenko, 15 other individuals have been listed, including his son and national security adviser, Viktor Lukashenko.

Those sanctioned, it said, are alleged to have been responsible for the use of violence and arbitrary arrests that followed Belarus’ presidential elections, which were held in August.

In addition to individual sanctions, Switzerland also committed to amend its embargo on arms and other exports that could be used by the regime for “internal repression,” which it said is a response to the “ongoing repression of civil society and opposition groups in Belarus.”

“Switzerland is deeply concerned by the ongoing tensions and is calling for dialogue between the Belarus government and civil society,” the government said, adding that it is “urging Belarus to respect its international human rights obligations.”

While both the quantity and location of Lukashenko’s alleged offshore wealth is unknown, it has been estimated that he and his close associates have embezzled roughly US$10 billion out of the country’s coffers since he took office in 1994.

In October, OCCRP and independent Belarussian TV outlet Belsat revealed through the Panama Papers leak how a close ally to Lukashenko was able to maintain assets in the U.K. through secret offshore jurisdictions and proxies, despite the fact that he was under sanctions.

Just prior to EU sanctions targeting Lukashenko himself, EUobserver reported that his family was tied to two firms based in the member-state of Cyprus.

Valery Tsepkalo, a Belarusian opposition leader, told the outlet in September that it “would be great… if the U.S. and Western countries would reveal all his assets to the Belarusian public, so everyone could see how he was abusing power to make himself rich."

https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/13534-switzerland-imposes-sanctions-on-belarus-president-lukashenko

Chinese overseas lending has fallen sharply amid a reassessment of the Belt and Road Initiative

#BRI >#China pulls back from the world: rethinking Xi’s ‘project of the century’

Chinese overseas lending has fallen sharply amid a reassessment of the Belt and Road Initiativet.co/mEgGu7kI5w pic.twitter.com/lPXRtu74NJ

— 𝕮𝖍𝖎 (@chigrl) December 13, 2020

https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/chinese-overseas-lending-has-fallen-sharply-amid-a-reassessment-of-the-belt-and-road-initiative/

It has not taken long for the wheels to come off the Belt and Road Initiative. As recently as May 2017, China’s leader Xi Jinping stood in Beijing before a hall of nearly 30 heads of state and delegates from over 130 countries and proclaimed “a project of the century”.

This was not hyperbole. China has promised to spend about $1tn on building infrastructure in mainly developing countries around the world — and finance almost all of this through its own financial institutions. Adjusted for inflation, this total was roughly seven times what the US spent through the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe after the second world war, according to Jonathan Hillman, author of The Emperor’s New Road.

But according to data published this week, reality is deviating sharply from Mr Xi’s script. What was conceived as the world’s biggest development programme is unravelling into what could become China’s first overseas debt crisis. Lending by the Chinese financial institutions that drive the Belt and Road, along with bilateral support to governments, has fallen off a cliff, and Beijing finds itself mired in debt renegotiations with a host of countries.

“This is all part of China’s education as a rising power,” says Mr Hillman, a senior fellow at Washington-based think-tank CSIS. “It has taken a flawed model that appeared to work at home, building large infrastructure projects, and hubristically tried to apply that abroad.”

https://amp.ft.com/content/d9bd8059-d05c-4e6f-968b-1672241ec1f6?__twitter_impression=true

More Silicon Valley Insiders Added to Biden Transition Team

After an election year in which the tech giants repeatedly interfered in the election against President Donald Trump, Joe Biden is now rewarding Silicon Valley by appointing insiders to a range of roles in his transition team.

Shortly after election night, the Financial Times reported that former Google CEO Eric Schmidt is being considered to lead a key tech task force inside the White House.

As Politico recently reported, four more Google and Facebook employees have been added to Biden’s transition team.

They are : Zaid Zaid, a Facebook public policy official, Chris Upperman, a Facebook manager, Rachel Lieber, a Facebook director and associate general counsel, and Deon Scott, a Google program manager who also worked in the Obama administration’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Biden transition is quietly putting Google and Facebook employees into its transition landing teams. pic.twitter.com/UI2QZKTcz6

— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) December 11, 2020

This is just the latest news of the Biden team’s efforts to court current and former Silicon Valley employees.

As Breitbart News previously reported, plenty other alumni of big tech, including former executives at companies like Amazon and Airbnb, are also expected to join the Biden transition team:

A recent report outlines the number of Big Tech executives that are expected to join Joe Biden’s transition team in the coming weeks. The team includes insiders from the entire range of Silicon Valley Masters of the Universe.

A report published by Protocol has revealed that a huge number of Big Tech executives are expected to join Joe Biden’s presidential transition team, with Protocol stating there’s “definitive Silicon Valley representation and thought leaders on tech issues involved in shaping the future of the federal government. ”

Notable tech execs joining the transition team include:

Tom Sullivan, Amazon’s director of international tax planning (State Department)

Brandon Belford, Lyft’s senior director to the chief of staff (Office of Management and Budget)

Divya Kumaraiah, Airbnb’s strategy and program lead for cities (Office of Management and Budget)

Will Fields, Sidewalk Labs’ senior development associate (Treasury Department)

Nicole Wong, former Google and Twitter, former Obama Deputy Chief Technology Officer (Office of Science and Technology Policy)

Martha Gimbel, senior manager of economic research at Schmidt Futures (Council of Economic Advisers)

Linda Etim, senior adviser at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (team lead for International Development)

This comes after Silicon Valley companies intervened in the election on behalf of Joe Biden. In addition to Twitter and Facebook both burying the New York Post’s reporting on the Biden family’s financial ties to Ukraine and China, Google also suppressed conservative news sources.

Six months before the election, following a major change to its core search algorithm, clicks and impressions to Breitbart News from Google searches for “Joe Biden,” dropped to zero and stayed their through election day. Prior to Google’s update, clicks and impressions from the search term saw a normal pattern of activity.

https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2020/12/12/more-silicon-valley-insiders-added-to-biden-transition-team/

Statistical Model Indicates Trump Actually Won Majorities in Five Disputed States and 49.68 Percent of the Vote in a Sixth

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

We report a simple yet powerful statistical model of county-level voter behavior in the November 2020 presidential election using two main types of data:

County-specific voting data from the five previous presidential elections.

Selected demographic variables (race and education) plotting how different national voter groups voted differently in 2020 overall.

These two types of predictors allow us to explain over 95% of the variation in county-level votes, and therefore allow us identify which counties (and consequently, states) look substantially anomalous in the 2020 election.

The model provides substantial support for the allegation that the outcome of the election was affected by fraud in multiple states. Specifically, the model’s predictions match the reported results in all other states, i.e. states where no fraud has been alleged, but predicts Trump won majorities in five disputed states (AZ, GA, NV, PA and WI) and 49.68% of the vote in the sixth (MI).

In other words, the reported Biden margin of victory in at least five of the six contested states cannot be explained by any patterns in voter preference consistent with national demographic trends.

SUMMARY OF MAIN ARGUMENTS

1. Our model explains 96% of county-level variance in Trump’s two-party vote share with four demographic variables (non-college white, college-educated white, black and hispanic) and one historical variable (the average of county-level GOP two-party presidential vote share, 2004-2016). All five variables are highly significant. This reinforces the conclusion that the model is generally a very strong predictor of vote shares, and so deviations from it should be considered surprising.

1. Under conservative assumptions, regression analysis shows Trump ought to have won AZ, GA, NV, PA, WI.

More

https://www.revolver.news/2020/12/statistical-model-indicates-trump-won-landslide/

ASIO investigating CCP members working within Australian embassy

Australia’s domestic security intelligence agency is investigating reports of members of the Chinese Communist Party working within Australia’s consulate in Shanghai in China.

The Australian newspaper reported revelations ASIO was launching an investigation into the claims, which said CCP members had been working in Shanghai embassies for years.

The report revealed evidence was uncovered which showed CCP members working in up to 10 consulates in Shanghai in a range of positions – including as clerks, advisors and assistants.

The investigation followed the leaking of a dossier showing 1.95 million members of the Communist Party and their links to big business in China, which concerned some areas of Australia’s security intelligence agencies.

https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6216206841001